Frederick J. Bremner Charitable Trust paves the path to Professional Wildlife Photography at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Principals attending the launch meeting of the CKWRI Wildlife Photography Program include, (from left) Brian Loflin, CKWRI Wildlife Photography Program Founder and Instructor; Sandy Hurwitz, Bremner Trustee; Janell and Tio Kleburg, CKWRI Advisory Board members; Leslee Hurwitz and McKayla Donovan, Del Rio Veterinary Services; April Conkey, Assistant Professor, Department of Animal, Rangeland, and Wildlife Sciences; Clay Hilton, CKWRI Director of Veterinary Technology; David Hewitt, and Executive Director of Caesar Kleburg Wildlife Research Institute. Also attending the meeting were Scott Henke, Chair, Department of Animal, Rangeland, and Wildlife Sciences, and Shad Nelson – Dean, Dick and Mary Lewis Kleberg College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Sciences.

Brackettville, Tex.- October 2, 2017

A new program for Wildlife/Biology majors at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) has been implemented by a generous donation from the Frederick J. Bremner Charitable Trust. The program includes a thirty-hour course of study in biological and wildlife photography, classroom and laboratory equipment and professional digital cameras and accessories for student use when enrolled. When fully established, this academic program will be the only one of its kind within a university setting in the United States.

Bremner Trustee Sandy Hurwitz said, “The trust was charged in finding a home for this donation in the center of a robust educational environment that can make a difference in habitat understanding and outdoor utilization. We believe that TAMUK is the perfect home for this program and we want to make TAMUK the unquestioned world leader in Wildlife Photography and Eco Tourism. As an educator, mentor and outdoorsman, Fred Bremner would be exceptionally thrilled with this new program.”

Dr. Fred Bremner, professor emeritus of psychology at San Antonio’s Trinity University, died June 30, 2016 at 80 years of age. A specialist in the relationship between the brain and behavior, Bremner joined the Trinity faculty in 1965 as an associate professor. Promoted to full professor in 1974, he served twice as chair of the Department of Psychology before retiring in 1999.

Dr. Bremner had a great love for horses and the outdoors and enjoyed teaching his students to ride, hunt, train bird dogs, and fish. He established the Frederick J Bremner Charitable Trust to continue his life’s work in promoting these passions.

Housed within the Caesar Kleburg Wildlife Research Institute at TAMUK, the new Wildlife Photography Program will provide students in the Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate programs an additional avenue to enhance their professional career through biological and wildlife photography. The purpose of the grant is to address the need to educate current and future students at the university level to serve the fast-growing needs of the millions of people in Texas and globally who are traveling to enjoy and photograph wildlife and nature.

The students will learn to make our public parks, private ranches, urban greenbelts, wildlife preserves and other wild places accessible and productive for wildlife photographers while preserving and enhancing the environment of the open spaces that the increasing number of ecotourists and photographers are utilizing. Every one of us that goes out into the field to photograph birds and wildlife clearly understands the need for more and better venues to enjoy our passion. The ultimate goal is to promote the Conservation and enjoyment of our Natural Environment through photography and ecotourism.

TAMUK is one of the most active and respected research universities in the world in the discipline of Wildlife Science. As a tool for research in the natural sciences, Digital photography is a tool on the cutting edge in providing new methods and practices in measurement, analysis and integrity in publication. As a tool in ecology and the environment, digital photography is very effective in attracting more people to the outdoors to better understand and appreciate our wild places. Wildlife photography also stimulates eco-business and nature tourism on a large scale beyond the scope of biological science.

These programs in wildlife photography and ecotourism will produce TAMUK graduates that will fill thousands of entirely new, well-compensated, high-quality professional jobs in rural Texas, and rural America that are not exportable to China, India or downtown Dallas.

 

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Sandy Hurwitz, Trustee, or                      Brian K. Loflin,

Phone: 512-751-8128                                     512-743-7009

Email: ausvetdiag@aol.com                          bkloflin@austin.rr.com